Getting More Bang for Your Buck: Teaching Nineteenth-Century Literature and Gender in a Survey Course

Abstract

This chapter describes the organizational options for an undergraduate course on Victorian Literature or a British Survey course with only a few class sessions to devote to Victorian literature. Focusing on the decisions facing an instructor about the inclusion of women writers and the “Woman Question,” the chapter highlights changes in trends over the last few decades. Changes over this time are described in terms of both text selection and assignments. The chapter offers assignments assessing student outcomes focused on application and analysis which move students beyond the reductionist task of restating women’s historical position as a single position without regard to class and race as well as boxing women writers into labels such as “social problem novelist” or “New Woman writer.” Finally, the chapter describes trending areas of gender studies not necessarily confined to women or women writers.